Men who have been convicted of domestic violence and stalking attend “diversion” sessions at a prison in the United States as part of efforts to help them change their behaviour. Many perpetrators of domestic violence never serve time in jail or have their crimes exposed or reported.

Image: Donna Ferrato/Network Photographers 4 perpetrators 1 r

e “The ratio of male to female offenders for all types of crime has been narrowing steadily during the t

p last few decades. But the fact remains that, today, about 80 percent of crimes against property are a committed by men, as are 95 percent of crimes involving violence.”1 By contrast, any reflection upon h

C the level and nature of female crime is a salutary experience for men, who would be forced to conclude that if men behaved like women the courts and prisons would be virtually empty.

The prevalence of male perpetration behaviours such as rape, child molestation and exhibitionism. … ” The overwhelming majority of violence against women and girls is Furthermore, and more relevantly, when females are involved in aberrant committed every day and in every nation by men. Where sexual violence or illegal sexual behaviour, coercion and violence is less commonly and exploitation takes place against men and/or boys, the perpetrators employed.3 are, again, overwhelmingly male. In categories where violence is embedded in tradition, such as child marriage, female genital mutilation Even though most acts of violence are committed by men — and studies and “honour” crimes, women may also play an active role. confirm that men have a higher propensity for violent behaviour than women — not all men behave violently. Are men genetically motivated, Despite the progress that has been made to introduce legal and social or hard-wired, in a significantly different way than women? Or does reforms to address gender inequality, violence against women and girls society teach the sexes to act the way they do? continues. Evidence suggests, in fact, that violations such as trafficking, 2 rape, child abuse, child prostitution and pornography are on the rise. The nature / nurture polarity The majority of studies of gender-based violence echo the findings of two psychologists whose research led them to conclude, “Most sexual Most researchers reject the notion that biology can be blamed for offenders are men. Men commit most of the aberrant and deviant sexual violent behaviour. Male violence, they say, is not genetically based but

perpetrators 205 is instead perpetuated by a model of masculinity that permits and even violent characteristics.7 In patriarchal societies, a significant encourages men to be aggressive. “Men’s monopoly of violence stems manifestation of male aggression is man’s perpetration of sexual coercion from lifelong training in sexist models of masculinity.”4 Anthropological and violence against women. research shows that domestic violence is virtually nonexistent in some 5 societies, and therefore not an inevitable human condition. Popular perceptions Generally, the “nurture” position rejects the idea that men have a natural Irrespective of this debate, there is a virtually universal de facto propensity to violence or that men have “uncontrollable” violent and acceptance amongst people and communities worldwide that men and sexual urges. In the case of intimate-partner abuse, for example, women have different natures and different roles to play. Whatever the observers point out that men are able to control themselves in settings origin of male violence, most people are caught up in their societies and where the social or professional cost of their behaviour would be too the times they live, and are products of cultural influences. Women may high, but are unwilling to exercise the same restraint when they are internalise stereotypical models of male and female behaviour as much behind closed doors. as men and, as a result, may play a strong part in the maintenance of these stereotypes. Those advancing this perspective challenge apologists for male violence, who use biological arguments or the “psychopathological model” for In many countries, gender roles are deeply entrenched and reinforced male sexual violence to explain men’s behaviour. Instead, they insist that by cultural norms, to such an extent that questioning the status quo these men are not “sick” or pathological and are responsible for their involves risk.8 Even in countries that are seemingly less bound by actions, behaving reprehensibly, with free, conscious choice.6 tradition, where equal rights are codified in law and widely accepted, these stereotypes still dominate the popular mindset. The counterargument to this opinion — which is regularly reinforced and perpetuated via popular culture and religious dogma — claims that The United States and Australia are examples of industrialised countries men are captive to their libidos. This view maintains that the historic where sexual stereotyping and violence-supporting attitudes remain and global evidence of male’s natural aggression and the biological entrenched among the majority. High incidents of rape, domestic abuse and child abuse in these countries are Violence is also a learned behaviour that may be passed down the generations. thought to be linked to a general “The highest risk marker for a man to use violence against his wife and child is acceptance of these stereotypes. One study recently estimated that during a 12- early exposure to violence in his childhood home.” month period in the United States, more than 302,000 women and almost 93,000 imperative cannot be ignored. While socialisation may play an men experienced a completed or attempted rape.9 In a 1995 study in important role in how people behave in different societies and at Australia, 37 percent of the male participants disagreed with the different points in history, the “nature” position argues that sexual statement that “Women rarely make false claims of rape.” One in six violence is too widespread and too overwhelmingly perpetrated by respondents to the survey agreed that “Women who are raped often ask males to suggest that men and women are not motivated and driven by for it.”10 Rape is, of course, only an indirect indicator of such beliefs or different forces. These arguments appear to echo 19th-century pseudo- stereotypes. medical claims promoted by some scientists that men were a breed apart and slaves to uncontrollable testosterone, where male promiscuity is Psychological research demonstrates strong evidence that violence is a seen as a critical vestige of evolutionary forces conferring “selective learned behaviour that may be passed down the generations. “The advantage” on men who impregnate multiple partners. highest risk marker for a man to use violence against his wife and child is early exposure to violence in his childhood home.”11 A negative Other theorists, however, are situated between the two poles of “nature” finding when one considers the current number of boys witnessing their and “nurture”. They acknowledge a degree of “natural male inclination”, fathers’ violent behaviour, but also one that offers hope, perhaps, that which in combination with repeated negative socialisation reinforces nonviolence can be similarly learned.

206 perpetrators Belgian child killer and rapist Marc Dutroux throws himself to the ground while pretending to have a heart attack on the way to his first court appearance in October 2002. A doctor who was called to the scene proclaimed him fit for trial. Dutroux was arrested in August 1996 for the kidnapping and rape of six young girls and the murder of two of them. His highly publicised case and disturbing trial shook the Belgian establishment. Dutroux was given a life sentence.

Image: Jorgen Hildebrandt/Panos Two brothers, aged 12 and 13, wash the ink off their hands after being fingerprinted by police in Cape Town, South Africa. The brothers and their 11-year-old friend were taken in by the Police Child Protection Unit after being identified as the sexual assailants of a three-year- old boy who lived near them. The boys allegedly forced the younger child to perform oral sex on them and then did the same to him.

Image: Mariella Furrer

A man is led away after being found guilty of stabbing his wife to death in a savage example of domestic violence in the United States. He stabbed her 17 times in front of their two children and other adult witnesses.

Image: Donna Ferrato/Network Photographers Making man myths violence and what society can do about it. “As long as male behaviour is Cross-cultural studies reveal that in most communities simple taken to be the norm,” she writes, “there can be no serious questioning anatomical maleness is not enough to be a man. Real manhood lies of male traits and behaviour. A norm is by definition a standard of elsewhere and is often a “precarious or artificial state that boys must win judging; it is not itself subject to judgement.”16 against powerful odds.”12 Does this “masculine mystique” encourage toughness, dominance and extreme competitiveness at the expense of Violence and sexual abuse in marriage honest emotion, empathy and communication?13 In South Africa, researchers for the Medical Research Council estimated Violence against women is more predominant in cultures where the idea in 2004 that male partners kill their girlfriends or spouses at the rate of of manhood is linked to entitlement to power or male honour.14 one every six hours — the highest mortality rate for domestic violence Historically, wars have been intensely masculine endeavours and the ever recorded, they claim. According to a United Nations report that majority of all warriors, soldiers, generals, admirals, police, militias and same year, domestic violence accounted for more than 60 percent of prison wardens are and have been men. In addition, bureaucrats, murder cases in court in Harare, Zimbabwe. In Zambia, a recent study politicians and those who monopolise the systems of collective or found that nearly half the women surveyed had been beaten by a male institutional violence throughout the world are men. partner.17

As boys become men within these societies, attributes of action, Outside Africa and throughout the world, similar statistics for domestic decisiveness, aggression and supremacy are prized and closely abuse are staggering, with only a small minority of communities associated with “manhood”. These qualities, however fallacious, are apparently free of this violence. “For God’s sake!” exploded one Nigerian perpetuated and considered the “natural” order and the preserve of when questioned about his wife-beating. “You are head of the home as masculinity. The expression of these characteristics in different societies the man — you must have a home submissive to you.”18 can range from subtle to overt. Socialisation of this kind negatively impacts both women and men. A recent publication from Brazil called A high number of women who report domestic violence also report rape Dying to Be Men — based on studies of violent male behaviour in the within their relationship. “My sex life in marriage has been dominated by United States, the Caribbean, Brazil and Nigeria — suggests that because young “As long as male behaviour is taken to be the norm, there can be no serious men are losing their lives in their attempts questioning of male traits and behaviour. A norm is by definition a standard of to embody certain models of masculinity, they are literally “dying to be men”. judging; it is not itself subject to judgement.”

In many non-Western societies, strict social rules that perpetuate the rape, rape, rape — and nothing to do with love,” concluded one woman notion of the dominant male also deny women access to public life, from Latin America, echoing similar claims by women interviewed in private property, or even joint custody of their children. A woman is the different contexts around the world.19 protected possession of a man — his housekeeper, cook, monogamous sex partner and mother of his children. Even in countries that are All too often sex in marriage is not a mutually pleasurable event but a considered more advanced in terms of democracy and representation — brutal service exacted by force, threat or social convention. those with gender-sensitive legislation and significant structural equality between the sexes — violence against women continues. Many According to one expert on domestic violence, “At an individual level, observers blame the influence of modern media, in particular television, some men are more likely to sexually assault women: men who have films and advertising, for both subtly and explicitly perpetuating hostile and negative sexual attitudes towards women, who identify with patriarchal role models for men and women.15 traditional images of masculinity and male gender role privilege, who believe in rape stereotypes, and who see violence as manly and desirable. Myriam Miedzian’s Boys Will Be Boys: Breaking the Link Between Masculinity … Men with more traditional, rigid and misogynistic gender-role and Violence examines how and why males are increasingly resorting to attitudes are more likely to practise marital violence.”20

perpetrators 209 The perpetrators of rape within marriage are not readily characterised as that tacitly or overtly perpetuates attitudes that tolerate beating women. any particular group. Using force in marriage to gain sexual access is a Numerous reports from Latin America, the Middle East and Central and cross-cultural and cross-societal phenomenon that is not the monopoly South Asia cite examples where law enforcement officials have delivered of any economic or social class. In many cases those who are accused or wives who had been beaten back to the very families and perpetrators — in isolated instances — convicted of rape in marriage may not from whom they sought refuge. conform to popular notions of what a rapist is. Perpetrators of rape in cultures that expect and condone the brutal deflowering of a young Training programmes and special units of law enforcement to assist bride (sometimes with knives) may be committing a severe assault and victims of domestic violence have been developed only recently in a rights abuse, but they would be surprised to be labelled a rapist, which select number of countries. It was originally believed that if a victim of illustrates the complexity of dealing with these issues on a global basis. domestic violence could leave the abusive relationship the violence would stop, but now it is widely accepted that leaving does not There are common myths about perpetrators of domestic violence. guarantee an end to the abuse. In fact, separation is often the riskiest These include the notion that domestic violence is rare or that time for women, as many abusive men continue to harass, stalk and harm perpetrators are somehow “abnormal” men who cannot control their their victims long after the separation, sometimes resulting in murder. In anger. In reality, most men who beat their wives do not exhibit violent one United States study, 70 percent of the reported injuries from or antisocial traits outside the home. The idea that perpetrators are domestic violence occurred after a couple separated.23 driven to violence by the behaviour of their partners is also a myth, as perpetrators are often unaffected by their partners’ efforts to change or Many working in the field maintain that the most effective way to stop avoid so-called “provocative” behaviour. The notion that poverty causes perpetrators abusing their partners is arrest and incarceration. Legally violence is a myth as well: Poverty can be a contributing factor to and socially, however, societies still struggle with the complexities of domestic abuse, but intimate-partner violence exists at every domestic violence, the gravity of the crime and their overall socioeconomic level.21 commitment to tackling it.

Whatever the myths may be, it is indisputable that domestic violence Great strides have been made in terms of highlighting the scale and has especially frightening and tragic implications for victims, who are scope of intimate-partner violence over the last two decades. While the locked socially, economically and often emotionally into the abusing problem remains great, there is some evidence of progress, particularly relationship and share a home with their abuser. In many countries, the in settings where women’s rights and choices have increased and they have gained more economic independence. But In many countries, the environment outside the home is fiercely in more traditional societies, where a woman is unwelcoming to women who leave or divorce violent husbands, seek refuge secondary to the male head of the house and where male domination or patriarchy is more or protective custody away from their partners, or seek legal redress. overt, the overwhelming majority of violence against women goes unreported, forcing environment outside the home is fiercely unwelcoming to women who women to suffer in silence. Documenting the prevalence of male leave or divorce violent husbands, seek refuge or protective custody violence against women in the home in more traditional cultures away from their partners, or seek legal redress. In Nigeria, where there warrants further research. are over 130 million people and wife battering is widespread, there are only two shelters for battered women.22 In recent years, much has been made of certain studies indicating that men are also victims of domestic abuse where the perpetrators are Law enforcement in many countries will not intervene in what is still women. Some suggest that there is a degree of “gender symmetry” in regarded as a domestic quarrel, despite evidence indicating that without domestic violence — that women abuse at their partners at similar rates intervention (legal or social) abusers are unlikely to seek rehabilitation as men — but a closer look at the methodology used in these studies or stop their battering behaviour. In most cases law enforcement and the casts doubts over the veracity of these claims. Opposing studies show judiciary are run entirely by men, who are part of the patriarchal society that only 5 percent of domestic violence cases involve female

210 perpetrators A Roman Catholic priest in Cape Town, South Africa, hangs his head as police search his home. He was arrested in July 2005 after police received reports from several men alleging that he had abused them when they were boys. In 2002, a child-abuse scandal implicating Catholic priests affected nearly every diocese in the United States, and more than 200 priests were removed from their ministries. According to surveys, some of the abusive priests defended themselves by asserting that mutual masturbation, fellatio or touching children’s bodies, while sinful, did not violate their vow of celibacy.

Image: Mariella Furrer Bosnian Serb rapist Dragoljub Kunarac shocked the United Nations International War One of the accused cries as she is led from the courthouse in Angers, France, in July 2005 Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in his initial court appearance by after hearing the verdict in the biggest ever paedophilia trial in French legal history. In pleading guilty in 1998 to raping Muslim women. During the Balkans conflict, there was total, 65 men and women were accused of the rape and sexual abuse of numerous widespread and systematic use of rape by all belligerents — in particular the Serbian children — some of them their own — over a period of years. Some of the children were forces. During the ICTY trials, rape, which was closely associated with ethnic cleansing only a few months old. The six principle defendants were accused of organizing the child- was officially recognised for the first time as a war crime. abuse network in a poor district of Angers. Image: Jerry Lampen/AFP Image: Alain Jocard/AFP perpetrators.24 An examination of the reality of power relations, access cultural and social arrangements. The threat to women’s basic human to economic resources and possibilities for separation or divorce rights and personal safety is severe in these environments, where indicates that by any standards the violence and vulnerability of men perpetrators of honour-restoring violence neither see themselves as who are abused by female partners is of a different calibre than the wrongdoers, nor are seen as wrongdoers by their society. In the pandemic of abuse of women by male partners throughout the world.25 preceding example from July 2005, the perpetrators were required to carry out the judgement on orders from a village council in a rural area A dangerous catalyst in Pakistan where tribal customs still hold sway. Studies of the link between intimate-partner violence and rape and Honour crimes have been described as a “retrogressive patriarchal substance abuse indicate that “a large proportion of incidences of tradition”.30 They are based on the idea that a man’s honour is physical and sexual violence involve alcohol or drug use by perpetrator, predicated largely on his ability to control the behaviour, especially victim or both.”26 Research has shown that sexually aggressive dates are sexual, of his womenfolk. Institutions that foster male domination and more likely to drink heavily or use drugs. Other studies mention that sexual segregation have accordingly become fundamental to the social while the consumption of alcohol may lower inhibition for some men order in such societies. who are predisposed to sexual aggression, the pharmacological effect of alcohol on physical arousal may actually impede a man’s ability to In a context that would be considered extraordinary outside of these complete a rape. communities, a father, brother or uncle may be the perpetrator of femicide and not consider it a crime or anything other than the right Numerous testimonies from battered and sexually abused women thing to do. “This is my daughter’s wedding night and those people are confirm that alcohol — while not a cause of violence — can be a pretending that my daughter is not a virgin,” an Algerian father shouts common catalyst to abuse. Research indicates an association between “This is my daughter’s wedding night and those people are pretending that my heavy alcohol consumption and sexual daughter is not a virgin. I want you to examine her and clear my honour. I swear if and physical violence against women, but it is unclear, however, how alcohol she is not a virgin I will kill her right now.” increases the risk of violence.27 Drunkenness can provide an excuse for antisocial behaviour, such that to doctors at 3 a.m. in a hospital emergency room. “I want you to men feel they will not be held accountable for their actions. There is examine her and clear my honour. I swear if she is not a virgin I will kill evidence that men with alcohol problems tend to be violent more her right now.”31 Loss of virginity, or perceived loss of virginity, brings frequently and inflict more serious injuries on their partners.28 permanent dishonour to an unmarried woman and her family. The only way to cleanse the family honour is to kill the woman. Dishonouring women and girls In these cultures, the police and judiciary display gender bias in favour “Pakistani police have arrested five men on charges of kidnapping and of men who have killed women or girls for alleged breaches of honour. gang-raping a woman in the latest of a string of so-called honour crimes. Where there is legislation, it is often ineffective in prosecutions and The married woman was attacked because one of her male cousins had frequently regarded as Western or modern/urban by communities that an affair with a woman whose father disapproved of the relationship, predominantly live according to centuries-old customary law and police said. … ”29 informal tribal jurisdiction.

Despite popular perceptions, the concept of “honour” as a pivotal force Documented cases from Brazil, Palestine, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi around which family and society are formed is by no means the Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon (amongst many other monopoly of Muslim culture. Research in Latin America, Mediterranean countries) illustrate present-day examples of lenient judgements for wife countries, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East, as well northern and murdering. This exists on a universal scale and therefore does “not result sub-Saharan Africa, shows that patriarchal models of honour dominate from religious or cultural factors but from a shared attitude to do with a

perpetrators 213 woman’s worth and their proper role in society.”32 In such cases the and boys are also raped in high numbers, usually by heterosexual males. perpetrator may even be exonerated. Rape may happen in the context of “dating”, in marriage, or as part of gang initiation. Rape is widespread in areas of civil unrest and where the In these contexts what can we say of the perpetrators? Are they rule of law is weak. Rape and sexual abuse are also rife in protected and individuals guilty of gross human rights abuses and murder or are they “captive” environments such as prisons, refugee and displaced person’s part of a culture, a system that is collectively perpetrating these abuses? camps, the armed services and schools.

The hegemony of patriarchy Countries of recent notoriety for high numbers of reported rapes are South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the rates of While significant progress has been made in the last 20 to 30 years in rape in India, the United States and many other countries are equally challenging patriarchal systems in many parts of the world, structures of high. Research shows that amongst developed countries the United male dominance are so pervasive in most cultures that many women and States has unusually high levels of rape. In 1980 the rate of reported rape men accept them and live out their days without questioning the in the United States was 18 times higher than the corresponding rate for “norms” under which they live. The inevitable involvement of women in England and Wales.33 More recent data from the State Department of particular forms of gender-based violence is therefore significant and, in the United States in 2000 indicated that a woman is raped in that some cases, instrumental. This is perhaps most evident where traditional country every 90 seconds. According to a 2002 study in Ireland, 6.4 gender roles remain entrenched. percent of the female population reported having been raped.34

Practices such as sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, child Cultural definitions of manhood that stress the importance of sexual marriage and female genital cutting survive and persist with the direct conquest and potency place women at increased risk of sexual assault. endorsement and participation of women. Mothers, grandmothers, Many rapists do not consider their aggressive or coercive tactics to be aunts and sisters all live under the hegemony of a cultural system of codes and practices Traditional practices such as sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, child that stem from male-dominated attitudes marriage and female genital cutting survive and persist with the direct towards a woman’s worth, her commoditisation, her subjugation and the endorsement and participation of women. importance, at any cost, of ensuring a woman’s fidelity through the control of her sexuality. criminal and often feel justified in forcing a women into having sex. Studies have shown that men do not place as great a value on sexual As a result, these practices are often perpetrated and facilitated by consent as women.35 women, who, like their male counterparts, do not seek to change their customs. The same is true in societies where crimes related to “honour” The act of sexual violence may be motivated by different impulses continue. It would be erroneous to suggest that women are united depending on the rapist and the social or political context in which the against the men of their societies over issues of honour. The extent to violation is performed. Many researchers have concluded, however, that which women are implicated and involved as perpetrators of practices rape is essentially an expression of power rather than an act committed which harm their own sex illustrates how slow and complicated any for sexual gratification. They argue that while sexual arousal and even future change will be. sexual gratification may be a by-product of rape, sex serves as the medium through which perpetrators of rape both demonstrate and Rape and sexual abuse exercise control over their victims. Rape is a pandemic of huge proportions that affects millions of people Even when acting according to the same basic impulse, rapists are as across the globe. The perpetrators are almost exclusively male and the varied as those who are raped, and efforts to pin down specific victims predominantly women and girls. Their victims may be infants, characteristics of rapists are inconclusive. Despite the popular adolescents, women in their reproductive years and older women. Men representation of rapists as “sick” or depraved monsters, studies have

214 perpetrators Police surround the body of convicted rapist Carlos Pardilla outside a Manila court in the Philippines in June 1999. Pardilla leapt to his death from the fifth floor of the courthouse after being sentenced to death by legal injection for raping his daughter.

Image: Mike Alquinto/AFP

David Potse, age 23, after being convicted in a South African court of raping a nine- month-old baby. Potse’s DNA matched samples taken from the victim, and his girlfriend, who witnessed the rape, testified against him. He was given a life sentence for the rape, with an additional 18-year sentence for indecent assault.

Image: Emile Hendricks/AFP Doctors check for any remaining signs of life in the bodies of two Saudi men and one Kuwaiti man, which hang from the gallows in front of the interior ministry in Kuwait City in 2004. The men were convicted of the rape and murder of a six-year- old girl they had kidnapped in 2002. After taking the child from her home, they drove to a remote desert area, where they raped her and then stabbed her five times in the chest before slitting her throat.

Image: Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP shown that fewer than 5 percent of men were “psychotic” when they individual women and social groups, to destabilise and demoralise raped.36 The central assumption in the psychopathological model is communities or to drive unwanted people from their land.41 Conflicts that violent male sexual aggression is strange or abnormal, but the in the last decade in the Balkans and the present atrocities in Darfur, prevalence of rape and the range of perpetrators links sexual aggression, western Sudan, as well as the mass rape of women and girls during the instead, to social and environmental variables. 1994 genocide in Rwanda are examples of rape being used to achieve these kinds of ends. Men may be forced at gunpoint to rape female A study of 114 convicted and incarcerated rapists in the United States family members or other men, as part of the use of rape to terrorise and revealed a range of motivations from the perpetrators’ perspective. A humiliate people. number of rapists used sexual violence in revenge against another male and/or as punishment — by abusing another man’s woman they punish The perpetrators in these cases are a wide range of men, uniformed and the man — while others used it as a means of gaining sexual access to civilian, who act with the tacit or explicit approval of their political or unwilling or unavailable women. In one example, a man had an military leaders. While many rapists in these contexts may claim, after argument with victim’s husband. “I grabbed her and started beating the the event, that they were coerced into committing rape, there is a long hell out of her. Then I committed the act. I knew what I was doing. I was history of rape being seen and enjoyed as the spoils of war. mad. I could have stopped but I didn’t. I did it to get even with her and 37 her husband.” The role of vice and greed In some cases perpetrators said that rape was just a “bonus” added to There are categories of gender-based violence — such as trafficking of burglary or robbery. The rapists found themselves in a position of power women and children, the sale and use of child pornography, and forced and the opportunity presented itself. One man interviewed said, “Rape prostitution (adult and child) — where the perpetrators are engaged in was a feeling of total dominance. Before the rapes, I would always get a illegal activities for financial gain. The activities may be neither feeling of power and anger. I would degrade women so I could feel there culturally acceptable nor allowed by national or international law, but was a person of less worth than me.”38 unlike other forms of violence against women and girls, the perpetrator’s primary interest in his victim is as a lucrative commodity. Rape also was considered by some to be a recreational activity. The act was described as an adventure and an exciting form of impersonal sex The intended end of a perpetrator’s activities in these instances is to earn which gave the rapists power over their victims. A common thread in income, and the means involve coercion and infringement of other people’s rights. While the violent gangs Organized rape can be used as a tactical device … to intimidate, to punish that often control trafficking and individual women and social groups, to destabilise and demoralise communities prostitution may directly sexually abuse the women and children they control, or to drive unwanted people from their land. vice and greed are the primary motivation for their activities. these interviews was the objective of dominance. The analysts of this study concluded, “The pleasure these men derived from raping reveals Patriarchal societies which already victimise women and girls create the the extreme to which they objectified women. Women were seen as preconditions for trafficking and forced prostitution to exist. The sexual commodities to be used and conquered rather than as human exploitation of women and girls occurs within contexts that deny them beings with rights and feelings.”39 Researchers came to the final their most basic human rights. conclusion that perhaps they were asking the wrong question. “Instead of asking men who rape ‘why?’ perhaps we should be asking men who Perpetrators who organize, plan, invest in and dominate aspects of the don’t ‘why not?’ ”40 illegal sex industry are predominantly male, but women are also complicit at different levels. Female agents are directly involved in Organized rape can be used as a tactical device to accomplish particular running brothels, disciplining and maintaining prostitutes and recruiting political and social ends. It may be used to intimidate, to punish girls for trafficking.

perpetrators 217 the notion of incest and child abuse in most cultures. Research shows The users of Internet pornography involving minors, the global patrons that the majority of perpetrators are men; only a small percentage of the of women who are forced into prostitution, and those who keep abuse — between 3 percent and 10 percent — is conducted by trafficked women in virtual slavery (as domestic or sexual slaves) are no women.43 The male perpetrator is normally a father, brother, uncle, step- less perpetrators of sexual crimes. father or grandfather. One study suggested that while 13 percent of all perpetrators of female incest were the biological fathers and 12 percent The sex “industry” operates within market dictates of supply and “There are many perpetrators who have committed sexual crimes against children, demand, and both sides have to take some of their own children, in a very deliberate, systematic, premeditated, responsibility. Perpetrators on the supply side of the illegal sex industry thoughtful, manipulative and conniving sort of way.” are normally criminals and organized in what is a highly competitive and lucrative multimillion-dollar were brothers, only 0.5 percent were mothers.44 In many cases the economy. On the demand side, users of prostitutes and Internet victim’s fear of testifying against the known perpetrator, combined with pornography throughout the world are demographically diverse, and the considerable social disapprobation for the perpetrator if exposed, include men of all ages and characters. Women also use these sex means that countless cases of child abuse are hidden by families or services, although it is less common. Sometimes these users may be communities. Victims of child abuse within the family suffer a special ignorant — or choose to be ignorant — of the gender-based violence sense of harm: The violations break spoken and unspoken rules of they involve themselves in. kinship that traditionally codify the identity of the child.45

National laws in various Western countries are beginning to reflect this As with other gender-based crimes, people who prey on children are not sense that the users of these “services” are complicit in the illegal activity a homogenous group. They range from those clinically defined as irrespective of where the crime occurs. In recent years, cases of British “preferential paedophiles”, to situational abusers, to those who are sex tourists being prosecuted for activities committed in Cambodia or indifferent to the age of their sexual partners and finally to those who the Philippines, or Australians when visiting Thailand are sobering perpetrate infant rape. Situational abusers may not be exclusively reminders to perpetrators that international boundaries no longer attracted to children but in a single case or series of cases may take provide them with the immunity that they previously enjoyed. There advantage of a situation where they engage in sex with a minor. also have been initiatives in some countries to criminalise domestic “Indifferent” abusers are unlikely to seek out young children but are prostitution by policing and punishing the clients rather than the sex nevertheless willing to pay for casual sex with underage girls, particularly workers themselves. when abroad. The motivations for perpetrators of infant abuse and rape may be the most unclear, although in some cultures those who believe in Perpetrators of child abuse the myth of the “virgin cure” may rape infants in hopes of being protected against and/or cured of HIV/AIDS and other sexually “There are many perpetrators who have committed sexual crimes against transmitted infections.46 children, some of their own children, in a very deliberate, systematic, premeditated, thoughtful, manipulative and conniving sort of way. It is likely that all child abuse is underreported, but this may be even These are not sick, demented abnormal people. These are thoughtful, more the case when the victims are boys. Evidence suggests a causal intelligent planned initiatives undertaken by perpetrators to get what relationship for boys between being abused as a child and becoming a they want.”42 This psychotherapist from Canada echoed the perpetrator of abuse as an adult.47 Studies of female victims, on the other conclusions of numerous studies that focus on the characteristics of hand, indicate they rarely become perpetrators of child abuse. Instead, perpetrators of child sex abuse. girls are more likely to have other problems such as early pregnancy, substance abuse and abusive relationships. Sexual abuse of children and adolescents is one of the most invisible forms of sexual violence because of the considerable taboo surrounding Witnessing domestic/marital violence as a child appears to increase the

218 perpetrators In civil wars, when the rule of the gun replaces the rule of law, women and girls are at great risk of all forms of violence.

Image: Georgina Cranston/IRIN In efforts to combat the increasingly publicised tide of violence and sexual abuse in South Africa this billboard in Johannesburg asks, "What kind of man are you? … Violence against women hurts us all."

Image: Mariella Furrer likelihood of a male abusing a partner later in life.48 Notably, being motives of some perpetrators — whose actions were violent in the directly abused appears to be less of a risk marker for committing future extreme and directly targeted against women — in any other way. abuse than is witnessing violence, but it is nevertheless significant. In Most men, however, are not violent towards women and treat the other words, violence in adult relationships is in part a learned response women and girls in their lives with care and respect. There are a growing of young boys who grow up in violent homes. However, exposure to number of groups and networks of men around the globe who are now family violence is not a prerequisite for future abuse. For example, one taking action, often in alliance with women, to help stop gender-based study found that 38 percent of wife abusers had neither witnessed nor violence. Amongst various initiatives, perhaps the best known example experienced physical aggression as a child. of men’s antiviolence activism is the White Ribbon Campaign. Started in 1991 in Canada, it has now spread to the United States, Europe, 49 Addressing the prevalence of perpetration Africa, Latin America and Australia. Whether the by-product of cultural tradition or predatory and impulsive Responding to perpetrators of different forms of gender-based violence masculinity, gender-based violence throughout the world is perpetrated is a major challenge due to the scope and extent of the violations in the main by men. In every category of sexual violence and gender- themselves and the involvement of such a wide spectrum of men. The based discrimination, the victims are predominantly women. Violence problem is compounded and facilitated by the fact that most societies against women and girls is a global epidemic that permeates, in some are patriarchal, with structures and systems that directly or indirectly form, all cultures and communities. defend and reproduce perpetrators of physical violence and sexual assault and abuse. This chapter seeks to explore the motivation that drives perpetrators of some aspects of gender-based violence against women. Many writers Research shows that these forms of violence, and in particular child and commentators describe the behaviour of perpetrators in different abuse, are most often transmitted intergenerationally through those who ways, using sociological, cultural or psychological constructs, but some have been subject to, or witness to, abuse.50 In such an environment, it of the individual testimonies researched for this book were so is difficult to see how real changes will take place to break the cycle of gratuitously brutal, so monstrous in intent and so utterly careless of the violence unless men themselves, as chief perpetrators, take a leading role suffering of the victim that the term “evil” seems to be the only suitable in creating societies that structurally and socially reject gender-based description. This writer was at a loss to understand or explain the violence in all its forms. I

perpetrators 221 Recent conflicts in West Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Sudan are examples of wars in which government soldiers, militias, rebels and criminals have perpetrated many thousands of brutal rapes. This woman, a nurse by profession, was abducted by rebels in Sierra Leone to live as a "bush wife". The scar on her forehead is from a bullet wound she sustained when the soldiers, after gang-raping her, tortured her by seeing how close they could come to killing her with an AK-47.

Image: Brent Stirton A 13-year-old girl and former "bush wife" who became pregnant through rape in Sierra Leone. She was fortunate enough to return to her family after peace accords were signed, but shortly afterwards her father threw her out of the household for bringing "dishonour" to the family. In the countless stories of this nature, the perpetrators are never brought to account for acts that shatter women’s and girls’ lives. In many cases victims suffer the secondary impact of rejection by their families and communities. Frequently, girls in this predicament find that prostitution is their only means of survival.

Image: Brent Stirton